He delivered shit ton of code; managers have seen the progress pretty much daily, or at least weekly. The failure of the project can be blamed on many things - so ultimately, maybe Walter was just digging the right (albeit crude) ditch but at the wrong place. Someone else's ass may or may not get busted for the project flop (depends on the size of the company, usually).

In the meantime, Steve gets sacked because he's obviously not working - so why he should get paid?

The point is, companies would want you to focus on business goals, but in fact they pay you for the amount of code produced (and punish you if it's low).

> Noone is aware that Walter overworked because noone saw him

I know Walter. He made a big point of sending e-mails at 2 AM, CC-ing the recipient's boss, and then following up at 8:00 the next morning asking why you hadn't responded yet.

This behavior is seriously wrong. It's insane that it could go on for months without feedback or blame.

The question is whether it comes from Walter or from the company. Either let him go or move to a better environment.